An injured lower extremity, such as the foot or leg, is conventionally placed in a cast. The cast may be a built-up composite of fabric material and plaster of Paris. The casts are fragile and easily damaged due to the frangible nature of this type of construction. In order to effect limited mobility of the patient, it is customary to affix a walking iron to the lower extremity of the cast in underlying relationship respective to the patient's foot so that the load presented by the mass of one's body can be safely transferred into the cast and thence into the walking iron. Hence the walking iron is arranged to effectively bottom support the cast to avoid direct application of undesirable forces to the immediate bottom of the foot, and to avoid concentration of destructive loads to isolated or small areas of the cast.
After a cast is fitted, with the walking iron being made integrally therewith, subsequent adjustment cannot usually be effected. Moreover, transfer of loads from the cast into the ground has not heretofore received significant study; and therefore, it would be desirable to improve the configuration of the ground-contacting part of the prior art walking iron, as well as providing for the before mentioned adjustment, and such a desirable walking iron is the subject of this invention.
Mention is made of U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,966,154; 2,401,068; 1,383,928; 2,264,570; and 2,762,367 for further background of this invention.